Social injustice: causes, consequences, and systemic approaches

Outline Template: Essay on Social Injustice

I. Introduction

A. Alarming fact or statistic related to social injustices

B. Begin listing some of the main issues you will discuss in the paper about social injustice

C. Thesis statement about the causes or effects of social injustice.

II. Body paragraph: Causes of social injustice

III. Body paragraph: Effects of social injustice

IV. Body paragraph: How to respond to social injustice and take action

V. Conclusion

A. Restating your thesis statement

B. Reiterating the main points issued in the essay

C. Finishing remarks or call to action

Example Outline: Essay on Social Injustice

I. People in positions of power of privilege frequently fail to recognize various forms of social injustice.

A. Social injustice most frequently manifests as overt or covert discrimination.

B. Gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and class are the most common types of social injustices, and often these issues intersect.

C. To uproot social injustice, it is important to raise awareness and show how, as Martin Luther King put it, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

II. Recognizing social injustice

A. Those who have never before been victims of discrimination may be unable to recognize discriminatory actions.

B. Privilege confers power and vice versa.

III. Types of social injustice

A. Race

1. Examples from history

2. Current examples

B. Class

1. Historical examples related to labor unions

2. Current forms of class-based injustices

C. Gender and sexual orientation

1. Patriarchy and ongoing gender discrimination through unequal pay

2. Pervasiveness of gender discrimination using statistics about the number of female CEOs or heads of state.

IV. Responding to social injustice

A. Taking action